Kevin Durant established himself as a worthy MVP. Joakim Noah thrived as a point-center and captured the Defensive Player of the Year award. Toronto emerged as an intriguing young squad in the East. The Spurs remained a machine built from a few stars, a great coach and valuable role players previously discarded into the dumpster by other teams.

Strange midseason regression occurred in Indiana. Blake Griffin catapulted himself into any conversation about the top five players in basketball. The Washington Wizards returned to the playoffs and boasted a backcourt that could inflict damage for many years.

The first round of the postseason gave us more competitive series than ever. The second round gave us all the ridiculousness that was Clippers-Thunder, as well as a 49-point LeBron James performance for the ages. And most importantly, back in December, Jordan Crawford won an Eastern Conference Player of the Week award. Steez flying high, you know how I feel.

After all that – 82 games for every team, plus two playoff rounds – we somehow arrived at the same final four most folks predicted at the start of the season. Boring? Not even close. The four best teams reached the conference finals and we could be due for even more awesome basketball over the next few weeks. Also, Lance Stephenson could soon become the Tonya Harding to Dwyane Wade’s Nancy Kerrigan and I would not be completely shocked.

Since I’ve predicted the first two rounds of the playoffs (quite poorly, in some cases), I’ll do it again. Read on.

Heat over Pacers in six

As badly as the Pacers have looked at times, they landed exactly where they wanted to when the season began: in a rematch of the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals, this time with homecourt advantage. To make things better for Indiana, Roy Hibbert last series brought to mind Lil Wayne’s Dr. Carter: “His blood starting to flow. His lungs starting to grow. This one starting to show strong signs of life.”

Hibbert lives. Indiana’s defense does too. Optimists might think that gives the Pacers a chance to topple LeBron James and the Miami Heat.

And maybe the Pacers do have a shot. They were built to match up against Miami, to get stops against any opponent and punish the Heat when they try to go small, as they so often do. That should make for a physical, competitive series at the very least. But James remains more capable than anyone else in the NBA, and the Pacers’ inconsistency has been frightening.

Of the four teams left, Indiana has by far the worst offensive rating in the playoffs. It’s about nine points worse than Oklahoma City’s third-best attack – essentially the difference between the Clippers’ league-leading regular season offense and Utah’s 25th-ranked abomination. And that’s after the Pacers met rather average defensive clubs in the first two rounds.

If functioning close to its early-season potential, Indiana should still push Miami, and Hibbert – when at his best – has been better than anyone at keeping James away from easy buckets. But the smart money is on the Heat. Though far from flawless, they feature the world’s best player and they will be meeting a team with a missing offense. Struggles against the Hawks and Wizards should not bode well for Indiana’s ability to deal with James flying off the top ropes with his elbows sharp and his eyes set on a third straight NBA title.

Spurs over Thunder in five

Obviously, Serge Ibaka’s absence could swing the odds away from Oklahoma City here. But even before the big man went down with an injury, I would have picked the Spurs. Did you see the clinic they applied against Portland? Recall that, imagine what type of advantage Gregg Popovich will be against Scott Brooks, keep Ibaka’s injury in mind, and remember that the Spurs have homecourt advantage plus a superior supporting cast.

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook will surely have at least one or two nights when they look impossible to defend, but the Spurs are so good, one of those forever type of teams that we should really cherish for as long as we still can.

Expect LeBron vs. San Antonio, the sequel. If it’s half as good as it was last year … oh my goodness I can’t wait. But first, the conference finals. Enjoy.